II SAMUEL 22:1-28 Lesson # 24
BEING A DELIGHT TO THE LORD
I. Introduction:
Q Do you know someone who God really likes? Someone you think is a delight to God? Q How did they get that way? How did they start?
An = Let them give their answers and write them on the board if you have one.
Note: It is our task today to see what David can tell us about how to get started being a delight to the Lord. It is also our task to learn about how to teach others how to start being a delight to the Lord. Perhaps three themes speak of our goal today: prayer in the wilderness of death, obedience to the Lord, and thankfulness for deliverance over foes.
Note: What we are about to read in II Samuel 22 is almost identical to Psalm 18. There are only minor differences. They are basically the same song.
II. The Good Thing About Bad Times: II Samuel 22:1-7.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:1
Q According to the superscription what is the song going to be about?
An = This is David singing to God, when he received deliverance.
It is those who have been personally redeemed that sing best!
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:2-3.
Q How does David view God?
An = David uses multiple metaphors to describe God. They primarily in two categories: as a refuge and as a deliverer.
Note: For David, God is not just a refuge or deliverer but “his” deliverer and “refuge”. For David is it “my” Rock, “my” Fortress, “my” Deliverer”, etc. The personal pronoun will abound throughout this song.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:4-7.
Q What is David doing in 22:4 and 22:7?
An = David is praying. When David is in a hard spot, David prays! The key to the whole psalm is “I called out to my God…He heard my voice” (22:7).
Q So what is the first step in being a delight to God?
An = The first step in being a delight to God is learning how to go to Him when we are in a tight spot. He delights to hear from his children when they are hurting. Often we complain or go into despair or pout, but God wants us to call to Him, “Who is worthy of praise” (22:4).
Q Why do you think we often do not pray when in a tight spot?
An = As strange as this sounds, we often do not pray because in a very practical sense we do not believe: >>> Have someone read Hebrews 11:6.
Q What is it that is distressing David in 22:5-6?
An = David is near death! Water was often a symbol for death in Hebrew mentality. In fact, the name of the God of death in the Canaanite religion is “Mot” who was also the God under the Sea!
Q Why does God allow us to get placed in “tight spots”?
An = It could be that we are being tested to actually deepen our faith through the very situation that threatens us. If we want to be a delight to God we might first have to be in a “tight spot”.
To the Devil this is an opportunity to destroy you and to God it is an opportunity to deepen you and make “you a delight to the Lord”!
Q Do you know someone today who is in a tight spot? What could happen to their faith?
Q Will God answer them if they pray? Did God answer David?
An = He did hear David and saved him from his enemies (22:4) and heard David’s cry from His temple (22:7). How He hears is the next step in learning how to be a delight to the Lord.
III. The Coming of the Lord: II Samuel 22:8-20.
Note: David has personal problems, but how he sees God respond has almost “cosmic dimensions”. David’s experience is in some ways a “paradigm” for God’s work on behalf of all who cry to Him. David the individual is the one who experiences God, but he experiences a universal aspect of God’s work in the world. Watch how David describes his Lord. The up coming description of God partakes of “Exodus imagery”. In 22:8-16 we have images taken from Mt. Sinai in the giving of the Ten Commandments and in 22:17-20 we have images taken from the crossing of the Red (Reed) Sea.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:8-16.
Q How does David view God?
An = In amazing, powerful metaphors of anger, thunderstorm, earthquake.
Q Is this your view of the God who hears your prayers?
An = It may seem strange to our experience, but when we pray, He who hears is awesome in power. He is frightening, majestic and awe-inspiring.
If our experience of God is not in such a grand manner maybe Hebrews 11:6 is not quite true of us. We may need to ask Him to show Himself to us.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:17-20.
Q When we are too weak to meet our fear of death or our enemies what will the Lord do?
An = He will support us (22:19 b), bring us into a spacious place (20 a), and rescue us (20 b). The whole reason the Lord will rescue us is that He delights in us. He prefers us. He likes us!
Note: Ever since I have started preparing for this lesson and read 22:20 I have been praying that “He would be delighted in me”. I have told the Lord that I want to be a delight to Him, whatever it takes.
Q What is the metaphor used in verse 20?
An = God will bring us into a “spacious place”. God will bring us out of a “jam” and the feeling of being “hemmed in” or the “walls collapsing in on us” to a “broad and spacious place”. He will give us “elbow room emotionally and psychologically”. In agricultural terms the sheep in a broad place were in a place of good pasture and pleasant meadows. In the O.T. a broad place, metaphorically was the “promised land”.
Q What does verse 20 this mean for us or others who are presently in a “tight spot”?
IV. Reality Check: Our Character Determines How We See God’s Character. II Sam. 22:21-28.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:21-25.
Q What do you think of this? Is this how you feel about yourself?
An = Often, I cringe thinking God will reward me according to “my righteousness” or the “cleanness of my hands”. Remember, this is David praying. He knows and we know he is not perfect. He is far from perfect, but at David’s core he really loves the Lord and wants to follow God’s will.
David is not a monk, not sequestered away from life and temptation, but he was one who lived in the “push and pull” of leadership roles, politics, government, family life, sexual temptation, etc. It was in the midst of a busy and crowded life that David tried to “keep the ways of the Lord”. David is a lot like you here today. David also knew when he was wrong. When confronted with sin, he listened and repented.
Q How does David understand what pleases God, according to 22:23?
An = David keeps the Lord’s laws before him, and then he obeys the Lord’s decrees. In other words, David reads the Bible, hears the Bible, studies the Bible and then he does more: He obeys what the Bible tells him to do.
Note: If we want to be pleasing to God we have to know what pleases Him. That is one of the reasons we read the Bible, so we can find out what God wants and then go about trying to please Him.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 22:26-28.
Q Is the Lord experienced differently by different types of people?
An = Yes. How we approach Him affects His response to us. (Matthew 25:24-26 teaches the same thing.) We should try to be as pure (27) and faithful (26) as we can be. What is more, we should be humble (28).
If we are humble then He will exalt us. When in doubt, humility is the safest way to approach something. If we are arrogant then He will bring us low.
Q So how do we become a delight to the Lord?
Q If we wanted to begin to be such people what is the procedure?
An = It would start by prayer.
Let us start by first deciding to tell Him our problems when in a tight spot. Tight spots could be the means of truly growing close to God.
If we pray then we will experience His awesomeness and power, as He intervenes in our lives. God is greater than our present understanding of Him. It is then, when we will experience His help and see how good the Lord is.
Finally, we need to realize that God expects moral behavior out of us. Our delightfulness to Him and our experience of Him will be determined by our ethical behavior. We cannot be immoral or deceitful and expect to be blessed by God and experience His goodness.